to the rest of the community. "Never" (says | bishop of-of-" "Of Canterbury," said I. "Yes! Mr. C.) ". was any one more welcome to his of Canterbury; for I do not see how he who is only money, though I left but little to pay my ex- an archbishop can by any possibility be the head of penses back to Corfu. a Christian hierarchy; but as you come from the British embassy I will give my letters, which will ensure your reception into every monastery which acknowledges the supremacy of the orthodox faith of the Patriarch of Constantinople." Such books would be treasures in the finest national collection in Europe." In some of the other nests near St. Barlaam, he was lucky enough to make further acquisitions, but still he contrived to get back in honor and credit to the mess-table at Corfu, where In a few days the patriarchal firman was received, without question he found hearty sympathy in and the fees thereon duly discharged. With this respect of the exquisite semi-uncials, the purple authoritative epistle* in his hands, Mr. Curzon (havvellum, the tri-color miniatures, and the Palao-ing safely weathered sundry squalls and outsailed one logical filagree. We must make a brave skip from 1835 to 1837, and from Meteora to Mount Athos. In starting for this, among the last of his Levantine battues, Mr. Curzon had uncommon advantages. He had been passing some weeks at Constantinople as the guest of Lord Ponsonby, and, merely as the English ambassador's friend, might well have counted on the patronage of the Byzantine patriarch; but he was moreover provided with a letter from Archbishop Howley. or two supposed pirates) arrived amongst the marvels of the holy peninsula, and visited in succession all its monasteries, save one, renowned for its figs, but supposed to have lost long before all its precious vellums. These establishments are in number twenty-one-and of all sizes; in some, he found one hundred monks, with accommodation for as many more; but half of the brethren are usually absent on agricultural duty, located for the time in outlying cells-that is, comfortable little farm-houses among the glens of the inner region; others are of comparatively small consequence, the whole fraterWhen we had smoked our pipes for a while, and nity not exceeding perhaps a dozen, besides the all the servants had gone away, I presented the letter. It was received in due form; and read agoumenos. All or most are still well endowed, aloud to the patriarch, first in English and then and in fair condition, despite innumerable heavy translated into Greek. "And who," quoth the blows and great discouragements in former ages of Patriarch of Constantinople, "who is this arch- the Turkocracy; and though severely injured and bishop?" " Why, the Archbishop of Canterbury." | plundered, many of them, but yesterday during the Archbishop of what?" said the patriarch. "Can-wars of the Greek revolution, when the Christian terbury," said I. "Oh," said the patriarch. "Ah! yes! and who is he?" Here all my English friends patriots were not very particular as to their selecand myself were taken aback sadly; we had not tion of spots on the Ottoman seaboard for a foray— imagined that the high priest before us could be nor the Ottoman soldiers in distinguishing between ignorant of such a matter as the one in question. Greek rebels and Greek victims of the license of The Patriarch of the Greek Church, the successor rebellion. The scenery is most charming. of Gregory Nazianzen, St. John Chrysostom, and Curzon lingers with fond memory over the "rocks the heresiarch Nestorius, seemed not to be aware of white marble" garnished with shrubs and flowers, that there were any other denominations of Christians besides those of his own church and the Church the sight of which would make Mr. Paxton gape of Rome. But the fact is that the Patriarch of and Mrs. Lawrence sigh-the gorgeous woodsConstantinople is merely the puppet of an intriguing the majestic central peak, which would not, he faction of the Greek bankers and usurers of the Fanar, who select for the office some man of straw whom they feel secure they can rule, and whose appointment they obtain by a heavy bribe paid to the sultan; for the head of the Christian church is appointed by the Mahomedan Emperor! Mr. thinks, have been improved by being hewn into an image of Alexander the Great. This paradise of monks includes some tracts of very rich soil. Their farms yield good revenues; they are active timbermerchants, and supply quantities of corn, fruit, oil, and beef to the Constantinople markets. Neither We explained, and said that the Archbishop of Canterbury was a man eminent for his great learning and his Christian virtues; that he was the pri-resentatives of the Holy Community of the Holy Moun"To the blessed Inspectors, Officers, Chiefs, and Repmate and chief of the great reformed Church of tain, and to the Holy Fathers of the same, and of all England, and a personage of such high degree that other Sacred Convents, our beloved Sons. We, Gregohe ranked next to the blood-royal; that from time rios, Patriarch, Archbishop Universal, &c. &c. &c. Peace immemorial the Archbishop of Canterbury was the be to you. The bearer of the present, our patriarchal sheet, great dignitary who placed the crown upon the the Honorable Robert Curzon, of a noble English family, head of our kings-those kings whose power swayed the destinies of Europe and of the world; and that this present archbishop and primate had himself placed the crown upon the head of King William IV., and that he would also soon crown our young queen. "Well," replied the patriarch, "but how is that? how can it happen that the head of your church is only an archbishop? whereas I, the patriarch, command other patriarchs, and under them archbishops, archimandrites, and other dignitaries of the church? How can these things be? I cannot write an answer to the letter of the Arch : We recommend his recommended to us by most worthy and much-honored GREGORIOS, Universal Patriarch." with hair, others richly clothed, anchorites and princes being the only persons elevated to the bench. They have good stout glories round their heads, which in rich churches are gilt, and in the straw hats. These personages are severe and grim of countenance, and look by no means comfortable or at home; they each hold a large book, and give you the idea that, except for the honor of the thing, they would be much happier in company with the wicked little sinners and merry imps in the crimson lake below. This picture of the Last Judgment is as much conventional as the portraits of the saints; it is almost always the same, and a correct representation of a part of it is to be seen in the last print of the rare volume of the Monte Santo di known: it would almost appear that the print must Dio, which contains the three earliest engravings have been copied from one of these ancient Greek frescos. It is difficult to conceive how any one, even in the dark ages, can have been simple enough to look upon these quaint and absurd paintings with feelings of religious awe; but some of the monks of the Holy Mountain do so even now, and were evidently scandalized when they saw me smile. butcher-meat nor smoking is allowed within the | pression of his face, must be very nauseous articles sacred region, but in some of the colleges the fish- of food. He stands up to his middle in a red pool dinners seem almost to rival Greenwich, and Mr. which is intended for fire, and wherein numerous Curzon speaks with awful admiration of their wine-little sinners are disporting themselves like fish in cellars—he “never saw such tuns except at Hei- alarmed or unhappy. On one side of the picture all sorts of attitudes, but without looking at all delberg." In several the libraries are still consid- an angel is weighing a few in a pair of scales, and erable, but the sprinkling of anything but Byzantine others are capering about in company with some divinity is small in the best of them. Only one of smaller devils, who evidently lead a merry life of the heads of houses seems to have impressed Mr. it. The souls of the blessed are seated in a row Curzon as a man of any pretensions to learning, but on a long hard bench very high up in the picture; these are all old men with beards: some are covered several were well-bred, gentlemanlike Amphitryons. Among the Fellows he found three or four of some attainments; one could speak French, one German, several a sort of Italian-the effects of housing now and then foreign wanderers who relished the fish-poorer ones are painted yellow, and look like large pot and swallowed the vows. Where the abbot was also librarian, or had the officer so designated in his special confidence, Mr. Curzon found little difficulty about buying such books as smit his fancy. In general, when such transactions must take place with the concurrence of the brotherhood at large, it was hopeless to deal their childish ignorance and extravagant expectations baffled the Frank. He brought away two saddle-bags and a trunk well stuffed with literary prizes, for the enumeration and laudation of which we have not at present room, and also some few pieces (for one or two of the heads were over tempted) of church-plate-goblets and pateræ of rare Byzantine workmanship, probably among the oldest articles of the class now in existence. But his mouth watered in vain at the sight of the grandest, and, of course, most celebrated objects-things too sure to be missed and inquired about-for example, the "glorious triptic" at St. Laura-pure gold, eighteen inches highset over externally "with emeralds, pearls and rubies as large as sixpences, and a double row of diamonds—the most ancient specimens of this stone that I have seen;" in the interior" wholly covered with engraved figures of saints which were full of precious stones"-altogether "a superb work of art," and the undoubted gift of the Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, the founder of the monastery. This great convent has two churches, besides separate chapels. The architecture is like that of the buildings erected in Constantinople between the fifth and twelfth centuries-that Byzantine of which St. Marc's at Venice is the finest specimen in the West; but he thought the resemblance was still closer to the chapel in the ancient palace at Paler mo. There are, however, few mosaics on Mount Athos, the churches and chapels depending for decoration on fresco paintings of the Saints and the Last Judgment. This last emblazons every porch, or Galilee, in the peninsula : In these pictures, which are often of immense size, the artists evidently took much more pains to represent the uncouthness of the devils than the beauty of the angels, who, in all these ancient frescos, are a very hard-favored set. The chief devil is very big; he is the hero of the scene, and is always marvellously hideous, with a great mouth and long teeth, with which he is usually gnawing two or three sinners, who, to judge from the ex Mr. Curzon here adds a note showing that, however Franks may smile, one of these pictures was really the cause of a whole nation's embracing Christianity : Bogoris, King of Bulgaria, having written to Constantinople for a painter to decorate the walls of his palace, a monk named Methodius was sent to him-all knowledge of the arts in those days being confined to the clergy. The king desired terrible picture that he could imagine; and, by Methodius to paint on a certain wall the most the advice of the king's sister, who had embraced Christianity some years before whilst in captivity at Constantinople, the monastic artist produced so fearful a representation of the torments of the condemned in the next world, that it had the effect of converting Bogoris to the Christian faith. consequence of this event the Patriarch of Constantinople despatched a bishop to Bulgaria, who baptized the king by the name of Michael, in the year 865. Before long his loyal subjects, following the example of their sovereign, were converted also; and Christianity from that period became the religion of the land.-p. 365.* In the most remarkable peculiarity about the art of We noticed, near the beginning of our paper, We may observe that in some of the grandest churches of Rome, two or three years ago, we saw many new pictures of Purgatory, with every horror that red and black daubing could represent, stuck up in conspicuous places, lent Christians, to subscribe liberally for masses to hasten with placards inviting relations, friends, and all benevothe day of deliverance. 66 66 the Greek Church. It is to be regretted that Mr. | and active creatures who have the audacity to Curzon had not read, before he published his bring their wives and large families within the volume, the very instructive and curious work of very precincts of the monastery I soon discovered MM. Dindron and Durand: "De l'Iconographie to my sorrow, and heartily regretted that the law was not more rigidly enforced; nevertheless I slept Chrétienne, Grecque et Latine," (Paris, 1845.) well on my divan, and at sunrise received a visit It includes a translation of a Byzantine treatise, from the agoumenos, who came to wish me good Ερμενεια tas ZworguQians, which Father day. After some conversation on other matters, Joasaph, a monk of Athos, and the chief artist I inquired about the library. The agoumenos of that peninsula, communicated in 1839 to M. declared his willingness to show me everything. Dindron, on finding the Frenchman astonished" But, first," said he, " I wish to present you with with the rapidity of his pencil in the decoration something excellent for your breakfast; and from of a new church for the convent of St. Esphig- tinguished a guest, I shall prepare it with my own the special good will that I bear towards so dismenou, and the exactness with which he was hands; for it is really an admirable dish, and one reproducing the usual type of every saint in the not presented to all persons.' Well," thought calendar. In this work, which begins with I, "a good breakfast is not a bad thing;" and the quoting the Nicean Canon-" Art belongs to the fresh mountain-air and the good night's rest had painter of Holy Objects, but not Invention"-M. given me an appetite; so I expressed my thanks Dindron found the code so familiar to Joasaph's sitting down opposite to me on the divan, proceeded for the kind hospitality of my lord abbot, and he, memory that he but rarely had occasion to reopen to prepare his dish. This," said he, producing its page. Here not only is the length of nose, a shallow basin half-full of a white paste," is the and lip, and brow for every particular prophet principal and most savory part of this famous dish; and martyr set down, with the tint of hair, the it is composed of cloves of garlic, pounded down, arrangement of robes to the smallest fold, and the with a certain quantity of sugar. With it I will text of the Bible to be inscribed on his skirt, but now mix the oil in just proportions, some shreds the rule is equally precise for the proportions and of fine cheese"-it seemed to be of the white acid color of the ass of Balaam, the cock of Peter, which almost takes the skin off your fingers" and kind called caccia cavallo in the south of Italy, and the whale of Jonah, the apes and peacocks of now it is completed!" He stirred the savory mess Solomon, and every animal in holy writ. M. with a large wooden spoon until it sent forth over Dindron dwells on the apple of Eve-always the room and passage and cell, over hill and valley, an same, not only in the thousand chapels of Athos- aroma not to be described. "Now," said the (churches, chapels and oratories together consid- agoumenos, crumbling some bread into it with his erably exceed that number)-but wherever the large and somewhat dirty hands, "this is a dish for an emperor ! Eat, my friend, my muchmosaic or fresco has been executed under the respected guest; do not be shy. Eat; and when authority of the Greek Church for he had you have finished the bowl you shall go into the studied well the parallel illustrations of the West, library, and anywhere else you like; but you shall and knew that in the old churches of Burgundy go nowhere till I have had the pleasure of seeing and Champagne our first mother is usually tempted you do justice to this delicious food, which, I can by a cluster of grapes; in those of Provence, &c., assure you, you will not meet with everywhere." by an orange; while in Normandy and Picardy, have expected so dreadful a martyrdom as this? I was sorely troubled in spirit. Who could it is the common apple of those districts;-and Was ever an unfortunate bibliomaniac dosed with that the same sort of variation runs through Spain such a medicine before? It would have been and Italy, unless in particular places where Byzan- enough to have cured the whole Roxburghe Club tine artists had set the early copy. Whenever forever and ever. "My lord," said I, "it is a the decorator of a Greek church has put his name fast; I cannot this morning do justice to this delito his work, it is not as painter that he designates lishmen must not eat that dish in this month. It cious viand; it is a fast; I am under a vow. Enghimself, but as historizer-as in one splendid would be wrong; my conscience won't permit it, example at Salamis, date 1755 Torogion eos though the odor certainly is most wonderful! Truκαι πανσεπτος ναος τετος δια χειρος Γεωργια ly an astonishing savor! Let me see you eat it, Μαρκε ἐκ πολεως 'Αργκ και των μαθητών αυτε Ο agoumenos !” continued I; “ for behold, I am Nixolas nai 'Avvis.—Iconographie, p. xiii. unworthy of anything so good." "Excellent and M. Dindron adds that the intelligence of Father virtuous young man!" said the agoumenos, no, Joasaph surprised and delighted him. I will not eat it. I will not deprive you of this sorry that Mr. Curzon did not make acquaintance all such vows are set aside. Eat it in peace; for know, that to travellers On a journey it is with this superior specimen of the recluses. permitted to eat all that is set before you, unless it is meat that is offered to idols. I admire your scruples; but be not afraid, it is lawful. Take it, my honored friend, and eat it; eat it all, and then we will go into the library.' He put the bowl into one of my hands and the great wooden spoon into the other; and in desperation I took a gulp; the recollection of it still makes me tremble. What was to be done? Another mouthful was an impossibility; not all my ardor in the pursuit of manuscripts could give me the necessary courage. I was overcome with sorrow and despair. My ser We are The convent of St. Laura is the second in magnitude and it is a rich house every way but in its cookery, we are sorry to add, the schismatical taint is marked :— I was informed that no female animal of any sort or kind is admitted on any part of the peninsula of Mount Athos; and that since the days of Constantine the soil of the Holy Mountain had never been contaminated by the tread of a woman's foot. That this rigid law is infringed by certain small treat. vant saved me at last; he said that English gen-1 square letters and of small quarto size. I searched tlemen never ate such rich dishes for breakfast, in vain for the volume to which this leaf belonged. from religious feelings, he believed; but he re- As I had found it impossible to purchase any manuquested that it might be put by, and he was sure scripts at St. Laura, I feared that the same would be I would like it very much, later in the day." The the case in other monasteries; however, I made bold agoumenos looked vexed, but he applauded my to ask for this single leaf as a thing of small value. principles; and just then the board sounded for ** Certainly!" said the agoumenos, "what do you church.* I must be off. excellent and worthy want it for?" My servant suggested that, perhaps English lord," said he; I will take you to the it might be useful to cover some jam-pots or vases library and leave you the key. Excuse my attend- of preserves which I had at home. "Oh !" said ance on you there. for my presence is required in the the agoumenos, "take some more;" and, without church." So I got off better than I expected; but more ado, he seized upon an unfortunate thick quarto the taste of that ladlefull stuck to me for days. I manuscript of the Acts and Epistles, and drawing followed the good agoumenos to the library, where out a knife cut out an inch thickness of leaves at the he left ine to my own devices.-p. 369. end before I could stop him. It proved to be the Apocalypse, which concluded the volume, but which is rarely found in early Greek manuscripts of the Acts; it was of the eleventh century. ought, perhaps, to have slain the tomeicide for his dreadful act of profanation, but his generosity reconciled me to his guilt; so I pocketed the Apocalypse. There were two small rooms full of books, and they were disposed in tolerable order on their shelves-but the dust had not been disturbed for many years, and almost blinded the intruder. He counted them, however, and indeed spent several days among them. There were, he says, full 5000 volumes; the largest collection extant on Mount Athos. Some 4000 are printed books, including several fine Aldine classics and the Editio Princeps of the Anthologia in capital letters. Of the 900 or 1000 MSS., 600 were on paper-all theology save four, viz., the Iliad, Hesiod, and two on botany, "probably the works of Dioscorides, and not in good condition, having been much studied by the monks in former days-large thick quartos." Among 300 MSS. on vellum was one Evangelisterium, of the ninth centurya splendid tome; about 50 gospels, of the eleventh and twelfth; many huge folios of St. Chrysostom, &c., equally ancient. "Not one leaf of a classic author on vellum." At St. Laura nothing could be done in the way of bargain-the monks were too many, or the abbot too honest. At Pantocratoras-a small house-there would probably have been no objection to treat; but when now, after years of forgetfulness, the principal explored his booktower, behold all the volumes and rolls had been piled in a heap together at the bottom during some alarm of the Philhellenic war, and the Turkish cannon having injured the roof, and no repair of a mere library having been thought of, the rain had by this time reduced the whole collection of paper and vellum to one black layer of stinking paste. Another of the smaller convents, with an autocratic abbot, is that of Caracalla. The library I found to be a dark closet near the entrance of the church; it had been locked up for many years, but the agoumenos made no difficulty in breaking the old-fashioned padlock by which the door was fastened. I found upon the ground and upon some broken-down shelves about four or five hundred volumes, chiefly printed books; but amongst them, every now and then, I stumbled upon a manuscript of these there were about thirty on vellum and fifty or sixty on paper. I picked up a single loose leaf of very ancient uncial Greek characters, part of the Gospel of St. Matthew, written in small *A board and a hammer served these schismatics for a bell. At the monastery of St. Paul Mr. Curzon made the rarest of all his acquisitions. This house was founded by an old hospodar of Wallachia, and its Servian and Bulgarian MSS. amounted to 250. some of them most curious. One copy of the Gospels was from beginning to end a perfect blaze of illuminations. I had seen no book like it anywhere in the Levant. I almost tumbled off the steps on which 1 was perched on the discovery of so extraordinary a volume. I saw that these books were taken care of, so I did not much like to ask whether they munity was evidently a prosperous one, and had no would part with them; more especially as the comneed to sell any of their goods. After walking about the monastery with the monks, as I was going away the agoumenos said he wished he had anything which he could present to me as a memorial of my visit to the convent of St. Paul. On this a brisk fire of reciprocal compliments ensued, and I observed that I should like to take a book. "Oh! by all means!" he said; "we make no use of the old books, and should be glad if you would accept one." We returned to the library; and the agoumenos took out one at a hazard, as you might take a brick or a stone out of a pile, and presented it to me. Quoth I, "If you don't care what book it is that you are so good as and, so saying, I took down the illuminated folio to give me, let me take one which pleases me;" of the Bulgarian Gospels, and I could hardly believe I was awake when the agoumenos gave it into my hands. Perhaps the greatest piece of impertinence of which I was ever guilty was when I asked to buy another; but that they insisted upon giving me also: so I took other two copies of the Gospels, all three as free-will gifts. I felt ashamed at accepting these two last books; but who could resist it, knowing that they were utterly valueless to the monks, and were not salable in the bazaar at Constantinople, Smyrna, Salonica, or any neighboring city? However, before I went away, as a salvo to my conscience, I gave some money to the church.-p. 424. One of the last convents visited was Simopetra. A monk who had just arrived from one of the farms could speak a little Italian, and was deputed to dine with Milordos. one remains intact: every one but this has been violated, destroyed, or carried away; the ashes of the Cæsars have been scattered to the winds. This is now known by the name of the chapel of St. Nazario e Celso, at Ravenna; it was built by Galla Placidia, the daughter of Theodosius; she died at Rome in 440, but her body was removed to Ravenna and deposited in a sarcophagus in this chapel in the same place are two other sarcophagi, one containing the remains of Constantius, the second husband of Galla Placidia, and the other holding the body of her son Valentinian III. These tombs have never been disturbed, and are the only ones which remain intact of the entire line of the Caesars, either of the Eastern or Western empires.-p. 27. the He was a magnificent-looking man of thirty or thirty-five years of age, with large eyes and long black hair and beard. As we sat together in the evening in the ancient room, by the light of one dim brazen lamp, with deep shades thrown across his face and figure, I thought he would have made an admirable study for Titian or Sebastian del Piombo. In the course of conversation I found that he had learnt Italian from another monk, having never been out of the peninsula of Mount Athos. His parents and most of the other inhabitants of the village where he was born, somewhere in Roumelia-but its name or exact position he did not know-had been massacred during some revolt or disturbance. So he had been told, but he remembered nothing about it; he had been educated in a school in this or one of the other monasteries, and his whole life Our readers will hardly quarrel with the extent had been passed upon the Holy Mountain; and this, of our quotations, but we may as well confess that he said, was the case with very many other monks. one main temptation was the pure, unaffected EngHe did not remember his mother, and did not seem lish of the book. In many respects the largely quite sure that he ever had one; he had never seen foreign training of the young men of rank in these a woman, nor had he any idea what sort of things our later days has produced serious evils. We women were, or what they looked like. He asked me whether they resembled the pictures of the Panagia, ascribe to this cause, in no trivial measure, the Holy Virgin, which hang in every church. melancholy aspect of our domestic politics. The Now, those who are conversant with the peculiar old national spirit was essentially blended with the conventional representations of the Blessed Virgin old national taste. The results in our literature in the pictures of the Greek Church, which are all have been equally marked, and in their place and exactly alike, stiff, hard, and dry, without any ap-degree are equally to be regretted. It is very much pearance of life or emotion, will agree with me that they do not afford a very favorable idea of the grace or beauty of the fair sex; and that there was a difference of appearance between black women, Circassians, and those of other nations, which was, however, difficult to describe to one who had never seen a lady of any race. He listened with great interest while I told him that all women were not exactly like the pictures he had seen, but I did not think it charitable to carry on the conversation further, although the poor monk seemed to have strong inclination to know more of that interesting race of beings from whose society he had been so entirely debarred. I often thought afterwards of the singular lot of this manly and noble-looking monk; whether he is still a recluse, either in the monastery or his mountain-farm, with its little moss-grown chapel as ancient as the days of Constantine; or whether he has gone out into the world and mingled in its pleasures and its cares.p. 428. a From this spinny no bag reported. At the next, Coutloumoussi, the wallet opened and closed on several rich morsels-especially a matchless folio of St. Chrysostom-"who seems to have been the principal instructor of the monks of Mount Athos, that is, in the days when they were in the habit of reading; a tedious custom which they have long since given up by general consent. (p. 430.) In leaving this singular peninsula, still so rich in monuments of the piety and munificence of the Byzantine Cæsars, we must lay our hands on one paragraph more from Mr. Curzon's Introduction: to the credit of our younger aristocracy that so many of them have aspired to distinction by the use of the pen; but how few of these have escaped the foreign tinge-how few feel it as their peculiar duty to guard uncontaminated the proud inheritance of the native speech! Lord Brougham does not fall within our category; but, exercising as he does a command over the resources of French diction that astonishes French people, what an example he sets of stern and rigid rejection of all outlandish embroidery when he unfolds his plain strong web of the vernacular! Lord Mahon too is rather of older standing than the class we alluded to; but in him they see a master of French style, who is so severely native in his English that he has sometimes been sneered at, by such critics as such an author may accept placidly, as a Purist. We were delighted to see Mr. Curzon following these worthy examples. Few, of his years, have been greater travellers, and there is not one foreign word used in his volume when an English one was at his service. A new book of another kind, which also from internal evidence must have been written by a person constantly mingling in the highest English society, reaches us when this sheet is in the press, and the rest of our pages are all bespoken; otherwise on many accounts, but especially because it is another instance of manly, unpolluted English, 66 we should have much wished to make it the subject of a separate article in this number. That is now impossible, but we beg to call our readers' The bodies of the Byzantine emperors were en- attention, in case the novel has not come in their closed in sarcophagi of precious marbles, which were usually deposited in chapels erected for the We think the writer has made two serious misway, to Rockingham, or the Younger Brother." purpose a custom which has been imitated by the sultans of Turkey. Of all these magnificent sartakes-first, in selecting for his main subject the cophagi and chapels or mausoleums where the re- very painful one of fraternal rivalry in love; secmains of the imperial families were deposited, only | ondly, what is moreover very bad in an artistical |